[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3443-3444]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       EXTENSION OF TAX EXTENDERS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would like to engage in a colloquy with my 
good friends the Senator from Kentucky, the Republican leader, and the 
Chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Baucus.
  Earlier today the Senate completed action on a transportation measure 
that provides for investment in our Nation's infrastructure. The Senate 
works best when we work together, as evidenced by the broad bipartisan 
support for this bill.
  I would like to take a moment to raise another issue of mutual 
interest--the extension of tax provisions that have expired or are 
expiring this year. These provisions, although temporary, are long-
standing features of our tax system, including the research credit, 
renewable energy production and efficiency incentives, and the State 
sales tax deduction. They provide important benefits, not just for 
American families and businesses, but to our economy as a whole.
  Although we were unable to address the package of tax extenders as 
part of the transportation bill, I was encouraged by the level of 
Senators' interest in extending these provisions in a timely fashion.
  I would welcome the opportunity to work with my friend from Kentucky 
in finding a path forward soon on tax extenders. It is important that 
we take care of this early in the year so that taxpayers can plan and 
make investment decisions.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I am happy to respond to my friend, Majority Leader 
Reid.
  These tax provisions certainly are important to millions of American 
families and businesses, and I would expect that Congress would act on 
these sooner rather than later. The uncertainty that follows when we 
allow these to expire and don't allow families, small businesses, and 
job creators generally to properly plan is unacceptable and damaging to 
our economy.
  That said, there are a number of members of my conference who have 
serious questions about some of the provisions that were voted on 
today. For a number of years Congress has reflexively extended all of 
these measures without any meaningful review or oversight. I know that 
the Republican members of the Finance Committee would gladly join in a 
bipartisan effort to conduct a much needed critical review of these 
measures and recommend to the Senate which should be dropped, which 
need modification and which are worthy of support as currently 
constructed. The repeated expiration and renewal of these various 
targeted tax credits and the fact our corporate tax rate will soon be 
the highest among our major trading partners underscores the need for 
Congress to take on corporate tax reform at the earliest possible date.
  So while I join the majority leader in welcoming the opportunity to 
work together to find a path forward, I would hope that both bodies of 
Congress would have the opportunity to look carefully at what is in 
this package and see if we can't come to an agreement on what is best 
for the country.
  Mr. REID. I thank the Republican leader. I look forward to working 
with him and our Senate colleagues to pass tax extenders on a seamless 
and timely basis. It is important that we provide taxpayers with much-
needed certainty.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I would like to thank leaders Reid and 
McConnell for emphasizing the importance of getting extenders done. As 
we prepare for tax reform, it will be important for us to examine these 
provisions to determine whether we are getting the most bang for our 
buck. Tax reform, however, will take some time and these provisions 
have already expired. We should provide certainty to taxpayers by 
extending them through this year as soon as possible.
  These provisions are important to American families and businesses. 
These provisions include college tuition relief for working families. 
These are tax provisions that help create jobs, support research and 
development, and bolster growth of American businesses across the 
globe. It is also critical for our energy sector. A dozen energy tax 
incentives expired at the

[[Page 3444]]

end of last year and several more expire this year. Each day we fail to 
extend these incentives means jobs for our economy. I am glad we are 
working on a bipartisan basis to extend these provisions and I hope we 
can do so as soon as possible. We need to make sure that taxpayers 
don't see tax increases because Congress failed to do its duty.
  Mr. HATCH. I thank leaders Reid, McConnell, and Chairman Baucus for 
discussing tax extender provisions this afternoon.
  I want to reinforce a couple of points I raised earlier this year 
when the Finance Committee held a hearing on tax extenders.
  My first point is that the explosion of temporary tax provisions in 
recent years has been a very notable and problematic trend. The number 
of temporary tax provisions has grown from 42 in 1998 to 154 in 2011. 
Not many people can be found that will say that Congress should 
continue dealing with tax extenders in a business-as-usual manner. And 
we should not continue doing business as usual when it comes to 
extenders. Recently, Congress has allowed important temporary tax 
incentives such as the research and development credit to expire. Then, 
after the business decisions have already been made, Congress has 
retroactively extended the tax provisions. If a provision is worthy of 
being in the tax code, then optimally it should be permanent. For 
instance, the R and D credit is an extremely worthy provision, and it 
should be an enhanced and permanent tax incentive. That is what 
Chairman Baucus and I have proposed in a bill we introduced in 
September 2011.
  My second point is that tax incentives play a very important role in 
businesses' planning of their affairs, making investments, and creating 
jobs. And these job creators don't want bad certainty they don't want 
to hear that their taxes are going up. Congress should provide this 
certainty by making permanent the provisions that are worthy of 
remaining in the law, and eliminating those that are not. Chairman 
Baucus and I agree, along with many of our colleagues, that the current 
tax code needs to be reformed. In the meantime, before tax reform is 
accomplished, Congress needs to decide what to do about the tax 
extender provisions that have expired. The Finance Committee should 
play its role in considering these time-sensitive issues. The members 
should debate the merits of each of these provisions and vote 
accordingly. After that exercise, then the full Senate should consider 
the Finance Committee's recommendations and move that product through 
the legislative process.

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